Sarah got up and rang Hogspear nice and early so that we could go and visit them today. But after trying countless times and getting little more than an internet dialling tone (didn't even think that noise existed anymore)
we had to give-up on that brilliant plan and try calling again on Monday. The rest of the day was frustratingly unproductive. I made a Weekend To-Do List:
- Finish unpacking/tidying/cleaning (alas normal life goes on too)
-Sort out action plan regarding sourcing the fabric for Leonato's Tunic.
-Contact Hogspear
-Visit Hogspear
-Make a masterlist of all tasks that need doing in order to complete the show
-Finish old sketchbook
-Start proper Production Journal
-Do illustrator files (10x gobos, patterned screen for balcony, lattice work to go in holes in wall under balcony)
-Work out who I need to get tickets for and what date they're coming on.
-Meet with Kirsty the Technical Assistant- Sunday Lunchtime.
Today I really started to worry about getting the fabric for Leonato's tunic, as I'm aware the makers will be starting soon and we really should have it all sourced. The problem being, I have many brilliant fabric samples for the tunic, all the best ones were just there as 'guidance examples' as their prices were extortionate and way beyond our budget. There was one cheaper sample that I had that I was sort of happy with. I love the lumiosity of the colour, but I'm skeptical about the fabric type- it's a bit vellore-y and I'm worried it looks too modern, especially in the way it catches the light. The unfortunate fact being that ALL my samples came from London.
So I posted the following message in the Much Ado facebook group:
"Costume People,Emilie and Sarah are you both free at some point this weekend just to have a little meeting and talk about this? Sorry I know it's the weekend, I'm just very aware that the makers will be starting Tuesday and we've got no fabric for them xxxxxxxx"Unfortunately poor Emilie has to work all weekend so we were not able to meet. However, she did send a helpful reply detailing her plan of action come monday. Emilie reckons we can find something locally, but I am VERY dubious of this. However, I've put my faith in her knowledge and if she can find something that I like in the pricerange then that would be amazing. I also spent wome time with Sarah working out the budget. I think Leonato's entire outfit can't come to anymore than £50-£60 max, and with needing 3or4mtrs of fabric for the tunic alone, we really need to find something cheap.
However, I'm feeling quite a lot of pressure with this decision for a few reasons.
1. I am a total stickler for fabric accuracy in terms of the colour and correct-look for the period. There's little that bothers me more than if you go to see a production and all the costumes are beautiful yet the fabrics are all wrong- too shiny, too modern.
2. Due to the very small number of makes in this project, after all the fabric samples I sourced, this will be the ONLY one that I will actually get to buy fabric for and have it fully realised purely to my own creative specifications. Not only that, but this may be my last opportunity for a while where I am able to have one of my designs properly realised, and I'd hate to compromise on this amazing opportunity by rushing the decision, or falling victim to the budget, and end-up making a big mistake buying fabric that I'm not happy with in the end. What's the point of custom-making something, if you're not going to custom-make it to your specifications.
Hopefully when I talk to the costume girls on Monday we can have a talk about it all and I can drill the samples I have into their heads so they know what we're looking for.
In the meantime, I got my textiles-student-housemate (an unofficial advisor throughout the creative process) to give me her opinion on the samples I had, and we did some tests of how the reacted when moving under direct and indirect light, as well as both natural and artificial light.
Some other issues that I tried to sort today were the fabric for the auditorium. I looked again on MacDougalls to see if I could find any blue fabric appropriate for the swags but it's all so modern and shiney- not to mention expensive!! The good news is that after spending a lot of Thursday trying to identify the correct sort of chiffon that I'd used for the washing in my model, I discovered that the scrap of fabric that I used was from Jess's textiles starter pack that she got given on starting her 1st year. So she has offered to kindly go in on Monday and ask the tutors exactly what fabric it was- I might even be able to buy it directly off the Textiles Dept! And John is very happy with us just flame-proofing it ourselves, and said it wont come out of our budget!! Hooray!
However, this morning I realised that I really needed to get the fabric for the seating rostra sorted and that I had no idea exactly what I was responsible for, so I sent John the following email:
Hi John,
Just wanted to check some things with you re. the seating rostra.
Am I in charge of ordering the foam for the seating, or is that something you're taking care of?
If it is my responsibility, please could you give me some guidance on what sort of foam I need, where to get it from, and how much I'll need?
The same goes for the fabric covering, I know you and Will talked about it being reversible or something to tie-in with Canterbury tales, so I don't really know what fabric I'm ordering or how much I'm going to need, and whether half of it will come out of a different budget- if you see what I mean.
Also, I got back in contact with Banyards as they never got back to me, and unfortunately the only option they could offer was skinny little sapling with only a few leaves... he said that there were some trees near where they're doing the building work at the moment- he suggested that maybe if they were removing the trees as part of the development near the enterprise pavilion, that maybe I could just borrow one? What do you think about that, and who do I need to ask for permission?
Let me know what you think,
-Eleanor
So hopefully I'll get a response to that on Monday.
Sarah texted me just now to say that she'd had a brainwave about checking dentists' and doctors' uniform websites for the white nehru-collar patrol jacket. Unfortunately following my research I found that due to the nature of their work, nearly all the scrubs and jackets had short sleeves. BUT a brilliant find was the 'catering staff' section on the medical uniforms website. Where I found this:
We also tried to work out the timetable for next week. I think if I send Sarah and Emilie to try and match my fabric samples locally on either Monday or Tuesday, then if they don't find anything, what I can do is when I go back to Brighton on Tuesday evening, instead of coming back to Bournemouth on Weds eve, I can go back VIA London on Thursday and buy the other fabric I had my eye on from Goldhawk Road. However, if this happens I don't know when we'll fit-in going to Hogspear and back to Hirearchy. I have to be in rehearsals all day Monday, but Sarah and Emilie just nee dto be there for the measuring session at 2:00 which will only take about half an hour. Maybe if I brief them during Lunch about the sort of fabric I'm looking for, they can then go out and look locally on Monday afternoon. On tuesday morning after the briefing (although I'm not sure if we go to that) we can either arrange to go to Hogspear OR Hirearchy (preferably Hogspear first, as we already know the prices and stuff for Hirearchy so it would be good to have a comparison before we commit). Then I will go back to Brighton on Tuesday afternoon, see Great Expectations, on Wednesday I will go round all the vintage and charity shops trying to match our other white jacket we got from Clobber, and maybe pick up a few more bargains along the way. And then, depending on the outcome of Monday's fabric shopping outing, I will either return to Bournemouth immediately OR go from Brighton to London to pick up the fabric form Goldhawk road.
Phew.
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